O.C. senators assigned more territories

Overnight, Sen. Lou Correa expanded his constituency by more than 411,000 residents this week and now represents coastal areas like Huntington Beach and Seal Beach in addition to his central Orange County district.

But the Santa Ana Democrat isn't on some power trip. He, along with 20 other state senators, has been assigned to temporarily represent additional regions outside of his district because of a bizarre quirk in state election procedures.

Since the 1970s, millions of Californians have, temporarily, gone without having a state senator every decade. This occurs after redistricting, when new legislative districts are drawn to reflect changes in the population. Redistricting has no effect on Assembly representation, because all Assembly members are elected every two years.

But senate elections are staggered -- half are elected during one cycle, half during the next. This staggered schedule, combined with the redrawing of district lines, inevitably means that some regions are going to slip through the cracks during the two years immediately following redistricting.

In December 2011, the Orange County Register and the (Riverside) Press-Enterpriseanalyzed election maps and identified all of the regions statewide where residents will not have a senator during the 2013-14 legislative session.

To address this problem, the Senate routinely assigns senators to temporarily cover the unrepresented areas. The assignments were doled out this week and Orange County's four senators each received areas. In fact, most of the Orange County lawmakers were assigned sizable populations, in part because Orange County has almost an entire senate district unrepresented this cycle.

Because of the staggered nature of Senate elections, the vast majority of the region once represented by former Sen. Tom Harman won't have a senator until after the 2014 elections.

But residents in that district and others unrepresented areas shouldn't worry. If they have problems, they can always contact the senator assigned to temporarily cover their region.

Sen. Mark Wyland, R-Oceanside, whose district includes a piece of Orange County, is picking up 226,000 residents in Dana Point, Mission Viejo, Coto de Caza and Rancho Santa Margarita. (Click here to see map.)

Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Irvine, was assigned 141,000 additional constituents in places like Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills and Aliso Viejo. (Map.) Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar, whose district also includes a piece of Orange County, was assigned 85,000 additional residents, but none of them are in Orange County.

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